![Laura Kinney, also known as X-23, was a character that was created in the 2000s for the X-Men comics. She is supposed to be wolverine’s female clone, who by being raised as an assassin since she was little became a weapon for the use of different organizations and in the process lost her mom, childhood and humanity. She is meant to represent the loss of innocence and nurture vs nature just like Logan originally. Laura when she was first introduced in the comics was a kid of around 12 years old approximately, with black hair and green eyes. She has been racially ambiguous in the comics, sometimes depicted with latin or asian origins. She is known for her two claws on her hands, and one in each foot. In terms of personality, very much like Wolverine she has a wild nature, very aggressive, blood thirsty and with no social intelligence or touch. In short terms, a bloodthirsty child with no knowledge of how society works as the only education she got growing up was military. Even though she is a child assassin, her outfits never reflected this as she is often portrayed with black skin tight suits, crop tops, bras, cleavages, outfits that don\'t cover much of her body. She is petite with an hourglass figure, a very small waist and thin arms. A trend that began in the 90s, as mentioned by Madrid, “ Marvel published a swimsuit issue where busty heroines lounged around a pool in bikinis. Characters such as Lady Death [..] wore barely-there outfits that left nothing to the imagination. Furthermore, these characters featured impossibly large breasts and toothpick torsos” (271) . This had a huge impact on the perception of women of all ages, from children to adults to be subjected to the male gaze. This kind of depiction of femininity fosters dangerous expectations in real life, because this character was always a sexual object since young, all her fashion choices are always edgy, with most of her torso and breasts in display, and unrealistic body shape for a child/pre-teen. She is a kid that does not have a reference of a childhood, so for readers to see that a child would go directly for this kind of style would automatically force them to link children and pre-teens as potentially sexual objects for their enjoyment. Additionally, for the female audience, to be exposed to seeing women being drawn with unattainable body shapes can be harmful as shown in (Nelson, 2015) “the smaller portion of girls who do read comics are exposed to women with unrealistic bodies and personalities that prevent easy formation of parasocial relationships, an exposure which could, as we\'ve seen, lead to negative self image” (8) A constant exposure to this media could diminish how girls view themselves (Derenne, 2006) “With media pressure to be thin and a multibillion dollar dieting industry at our disposal, higher rates of eating disorders in the population seem concerning, but are also understandable. While cultural standards of beauty are certainly not new, today\'s media is far more ubiquitous and powerful.\](https://visa1500w22.trubox.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/1556/2024/02/Untitled-design-973x973.png)
Laura Kinney, also known as X-23, was a character that was created in the 2000s for the X-Men comics. She is supposed to be wolverine’s female clone, who by being raised as an assassin since she was little became a weapon for the use of different organizations and in the process lost her mom, childhood and humanity. She is meant to represent the loss of innocence and nurture vs nature just like Logan originally.
Laura when she was first introduced in the comics was a kid of around 12 years old approximately, with black hair and green eyes. She has been racially ambiguous in the comics, sometimes depicted with latin or asian origins. She is known for her two claws on her hands, and one in each foot. In terms of personality, very much like Wolverine she has a wild nature, very aggressive, blood thirsty and with no social intelligence or touch. In short terms, a bloodthirsty child with no knowledge of how society works as the only education she got growing up was military. Even though she is a child assassin, her outfits never reflected this as she is often portrayed with black skin tight suits, crop tops, bras, cleavages, outfits that don’t cover much of her body. She is petite with an hourglass figure, a very small waist and thin arms. A trend that began in the 90s, as mentioned by Madrid, “ Marvel published a swimsuit issue where busty heroines lounged around a pool in bikinis. Characters such as Lady Death [..] wore barely-there outfits that left nothing to the imagination. Furthermore, these characters featured impossibly large breasts and toothpick torsos” (271) . This had a huge impact on the perception of women of all ages, from children to adults to be subjected to the male gaze.
This kind of depiction of femininity fosters dangerous expectations in real life, because this character was always a sexual object since young, all her fashion choices are always edgy, with most of her torso and breasts in display, and unrealistic body shape for a child/pre-teen. She is a kid that does not have a reference of a childhood, so for readers to see that a child would go directly for this kind of style would automatically force them to link children and pre-teens as potentially sexual objects for their enjoyment. Additionally, for the female audience, to be exposed to seeing women being drawn with unattainable body shapes can be harmful as shown in (Nelson, 2015) “the smaller portion of girls who do read comics are exposed to women with unrealistic bodies and personalities that prevent easy formation of parasocial relationships, an exposure which could, as we’ve seen, lead to negative self image” (8) A constant exposure to this media could diminish how girls view themselves (Derenne, 2006) “With media pressure to be thin and a multibillion dollar dieting industry at our disposal, higher rates of eating disorders in the population seem concerning, but are also understandable. While cultural standards of beauty are certainly not new, today’s media is far more ubiquitous and powerful.” Showing this way the physical and psychological impact the media inflicts on young consumers.
Later, in 2017 the R-rated movie “Logan” premiered. In it, Laura was introduced as a second protagonist to the movie, having the same importance as Logan and driving the plot of the movie. She was played by at that moment 12 year old actress Dafne Keen. In the movie, she kept a similar personality to that of her comics counterpart. She is shown to be an angry, aggressive and unpredictable child. Physically she was dressed like any other kid her age, jeans, jackets, a t-shirt with a rainbow on it. No bras, short skirts, tight leather pants as in a real life child it would not have been acceptable. Her portrayal of the character was praised by many. Therefore showing that it’s possible to show female characters in normal clothing with the common proportions of a child, without sexualizing them and they will still be found interesting. According to Nelson, 2015 “One character from the movies who shows the potential for female superheroes is Marvel’s Black Widow as portrayed in Iron Man 2 and The Avengers. Black Widow only plays a brief role in Iron Man 2, but even there manages to make an impression after being featured in a scene where she takes down a hallway full of armed assailants. Her role in The Avengers only improves on this image as she is depicted not only with impressive martial arts skills but also as capable of mentally competing with her opponents” (9). With the introduction of more female characters in live action, hopefully their portrayals reflect in their comic counterparts. Thus generating change in their features and how they are drawn and written.
Works Cited
Derenne, Jennifer L., and Eugene V. Beresin. “Body image, media, and eating disorders.” Academic psychiatry 30 (2006): 257-261.
Nelson, Kyra. “Women in Refrigerators: The Objectification of Women in Comics.” AWE (a Woman’s Experience) 2, no. 2 (2015): 9.
Madrid, Mike. “The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroine.” Ashland: Exterminating Angel, (2009)
Javiera Diaz
Excellent description of the characters, smooth and easy to understand that there were significant changes in the way X-23 was depicted over the time. Personally, I enjoyed reading a critique on the hyper sexualized attire of female heroes because that is something that tends to happen in comics and games. It is something positive that they made a 12 year old girl look like an actual girl, while at the same time they kept the wild personality the character would have in the first version.
The main points of this critique were first, the introduction of the character X-23, Laura Kinney, and her story. Then, a critical description of how the character was presented to the public and how this negative image of a woman would damage girls and women’s expectations. Finally, it was the presentation of the new version of Laura, which seemed to be more empowered and fitting into the role she initially had as a kid.
Regarding the use of sources, I enjoyed checking the works cited that I could find open and available online, especially the second one because it had a lot of information I have been thinking about for years. Also, I think the quotes were cited in the right places, just to add more information to what the student was trying to convey. Something I missed were links to these sources, since there was one of them I couldn’t find. Otherwise, this work is easy to understand and has really clear points.
Finally, the images clearly show what the student is trying to say. The differences between these two depictions of the same character are so evident that I wouldn’t have known they were the same. One is just a generic hyper sexualized woman, the other, a real girl with a wild expression.